Nikko!

If you ever go to Nikko, be sure to wake up as early as possible to get to the tourism sites. We were lucky we just happened to get up at sunrise.

See this picture? If we had gotten there even an hour later it would have a hundred tourists in the background. People come from all over! We heard people from south america, all over japan, and all over the west.

The Futarasan shrine complex is an enormous complex of buildings. Each one is ginormous and ornately decorated. Many of them had gold plating (fake gold plating, of course)

Everything was extra colorful and majestic. It was really fun to walk around!

One of the golden ones

bad lighting but everything behind me is white and gold!

White and gold dragon from the portion where photos werent allowed. Oops ;)

Was Nikko worth the drive out? Absolutely! It had so many interesting shrines and temples and especially the main one we visited everything was so supersized we felt like ants! It's very impressive and a great place to take photos and enjoy the surroundings.

Unpenji

We climbed Mt. Unpenji, at the top of which is one of the sacred 88 temples of Shikoku! There, we got the stamp we needed to complete our Imabari to Takamatsu section of the pilgrimage. It was definitely amazing in winter, although freezing. We bundled up, ate some Dango (grilled mochi on a stick), and started up!

Progress!


Angelina in repose


A repose a little higher up, I suppose.


Forging up the trail


It was cold, but steep so we were mostly sweating. Although my nose was frozen solid.

A little statue within a hollowed old tree

Statues in rows, columns, or just on there own.


Each one had a different face, different clothes, expressions, hair, accessories (including animal friends). Not a single of the over 300 were the same, although all constructed in the same manner


Apparently this guy has a lot of kids

The Shaka Nyorai, or Shakyamuni Buddha, reclined in front of a seven storied pagoda